Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-08-08
Their Eyes Begin to Open.
New York Tribune.

If Mr.. Geo. William Curtiss Newport
speech means anything, it means that the In
deper dents as body politely but firmly de-
cline to be looked upon rs the flag lend of the
democracy any longer. Indications of rest
less spirit have been going on in 'Harper's
Weekly" for some months, and indeed with
the exception of some free-trade organs, all
the Mugwump newspapers have been growing
more and more serious ever since the Stone
Benton affair directed their attention 50
forcibly to the Presidents record upon Civil
Service Reform. Though the independ- nts
left the republican party with a host of pleas
and excuses. their chief point was this ::
That there was no issue before the country of
any Importance except the reform of the
Civil Service; that Mr. Blaine was not re
former and that Mr.. Cleveland was. OF
course, this position was disputed, The
party maintained that the public service was
already in excellent condition, and would be
maintained in it's purity by Mr.. Blaine, while
the election of Mr.. Cleveland would mean a
great scramble for spails, dearth of states
manship at Washington and the prostitution
of the service throughout the country.
But the Mugwumps, declining republican
counsel and regulating republican proph' cv
vent their own way, and now when Mr.
Cleveand's term is dra wing to a close their
greatest leader, in carefully considert
spec ch, acknowledges that he is grieve ed and
disappointed man. He has studied the
figures and they don't foot up reform" He
finds that the Civil Service law applies TO
only IA 900 out of about lis 900 Fed raj
Offices so that the mere keeping Of the law is
not reform The law NAV be obeyed, and
the spoismen run riot ali through the service
ut the same time; in fact Mr. Curtis tells us,
they have run riot. There are about IS 900
chief ffices, the holders of which, appointed
by the President control more or less patron
age and form The great political mschne at
which the reform is really directed. Mr..
/ Cleveland has been in office twenty nine
months, and in that time he has filled As 900
of THESE off es with democrats. Mr.. Curtis
feels compelled to concede that this looks
ON ,zingly like a clean sweep, and wholly un-
like reform.
When he turns from the figures and looks
At the moral forces At work, he finds little to
reassure him. MIR. Cleveland has given Bos-
ton a Saltonst,ll and has kept in place in
New York Pearson. but against tn sc two
apnointmenis are to be debited a thousand
/ bad ones German snaps his fingers at re-
! form in MARYLAND and launches his Hgginses
and Raisins upon the political field IN defiance
of the President Vest and Cockrell in Mis-
souri. VOORHEES, and Holman in Indiana, and
Randall IN IpnnsNlNAhla rue rough sDOu over
reform and bosterously praise Mr. Cleve-
lands Administration. Virginia has been
given over to the bourbon democracy bound
hand and foot and in all parts of the country
the men who most loudly demand Cleveland
denomination are VIGOROUSLY hostile to every
principle Of reform. In the same breath they
sneer at reform and glorify Cleveland. No
body knows this better than Mr.. Curtis, and
while his sympathies move him to apologize
for what his honesty forces him to condemn,
he realizes that he and those he represents
will soon be compelled to make practical
choice between their new allies, who have
BETRAYED them. and their old comrades.
The republican party stands just where il
stood in 1884 1t was right then and it i:
right now. 1t is honestly party of reform
and stands ready to extend the system until
it shall he impossible to climb into power or
the back of patronage. The independents are
evidently tired of being first used as tools and
then treated as fools. 1t will soon be seer
how much wisdom they have actually learned
by their doleful experience.